this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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I'm building OpenWatch, an open-source self-hosted video platform as an alternative to YouTube. It's designed for content creators who want to back up their content on their own infrastructure (in case of strikes) or for anyone who wants a personal video hosting solution.

The project is in early stages, but I've built out some core features:

  • Home feed
  • Video player with adaptive streaming
  • Playlists
  • Interactions (likes, comments, subscriptions)
  • Creator Studio (dashboard, content management, channel customization)

Tech stack: 

  • Next.js 16
  • Tailwind CSS v4
  • Drizzle ORM (PostgreSQL)
  • FFmpeg
  • HLS.js
  • Zustand
  • Docker

GitHub: https://github.com/openwatch-app/openwatch

Feedback would be helpful, especially around self-hosting considerations and features you'd find useful.

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[–] ge0rg3e@thelemmy.club 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And also, it’s a bit weird to me that copying YouTube’s UI is considered good. I havent used YouTube in a long time, but I recall there being some good aspects and some bad. Why not create your own vesion of a UI?

I completely understand your point of view. But I want to make something that's easier for YouTube users to migrate to.